1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary cutting tool, such as a face milling cutter, which is mainly employed to carry out surface cutting.
2. Prior Art
FIGS. 1 to 3 depict one conventional face milling cutter which includes a cutter body 1 having a reduced diameter portion at one of its ends. A plurality of insert receiving recesses 2, each of which is opened radially outwardly and forwardly with respect to the cutter body 1, are formed in the cutter body 1 at its forward end in a circumferentially equally spaced relation to one another. An indexable cutter insert 3 is received by and releasably secured to each insert receiving recess 2 by means of a wedge member 4 and a clamp screw 5.
For carrying out a surface cutting using the aforesaid face milling cutter, chips produced by cutting edges 3a and 3b of each insert 3 are broken by a respective chip pocket 7 and are removed away from the cutter body 1. In conjunction with this, the conventional cutter has the following disadvantages:
The chips removed from a workpiece W are caused to scatter randomly on the surface of the workpiece W or the machine tool, or around the machine tool. Hence, the environmental conditions for the cutting operation are worsened, and the chips scattered around engage between sliding surfaces of the machine tool, causing the accuracy and service life of the machine tool to deteriorate.
In addition, when the chips pile up on the surface of the workpiece W, they become jammed at the cutting edges, resulting in the fracturing of the cutting edges or deterioration of the worked surface of the workpiece.
Furthermore, inasmuch as the chips are usually heated to a high temperature, those chips which are piled up on the surface of the workpiece W and on the machine tool come to act as heat-generating sources and cause the workpiece W or the machine tool to be subjected to thermal deformation, resulting in the lowering of working precision.